The efficiency and effectiveness of local governments has become one of the main points of interest in public sector administration, as decision and policy making gradually move from the central to the local level. This paper introduces an efficiency analysis framework based on accrual accounting data obtained from the local governments’ financial statements. Data envelopment analysis is used to obtain efficiency estimates, which are analyzed through a second stage regression against a set of efficiency explanatory factors. Furthermore, the optimal reallocation of the municipalities’ inputs and outputs is explored to provide policy recommendations that a central government could implement in a budget reduction context. Detailed empirical results are presented from a panel data set of Greek municipalities over the period 2002–2009.

Applying Data Envelopment Analysis on Accounting Data to Assess and Optimize the Efficiency of Greek Local Governments

Since 1945 the number of multilateral development banks (MDBs) has increased at a linear rate, with approximately one new MDB created every three years. The proliferation of MDBs has resulted in an inefficient duplication of international institutions with overlapping functions. Further, this trend contradicts our existing understanding of why states create countervailing international organizations. This article proposes a novel, two-step theoretical model of institutional change and creation in an attempt to explain this empirical puzzle. Utilizing the complementarities of rational-choice and historical institutionalism, the model demonstrates that the rational actions of states in the past can lead to seemingly irrational institutional change in the future. This process results in the repetitive creation of countervailing MDBs designed to solve the same functional problems. To evaluate the model’s hypotheses, three case studies are undertaken, employing archival material, internal documents, and 48 interviews conducted by the author in London, Washington, D.C. and Manila, Philippines. The empirical results are of direct interest to policy-makers currently negotiating the structure of new MDBs in Asia and Latin America.

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The proliferation of multilateral development banks

https://koasas.kaist.ac.kr/bitstream/10203/249787/1/000453643400023.pdf

Public-private partnerships for e-government in developing countries: An early stage assessment framework.

Social and/or political involvement within the population is often argued to enhance public sector performance. The underlying idea is that engagement fosters political awareness and interest and increases the public?s monitoring ability. Still, although extensive voter involvement may put pressure on policy-makers, it might also send a vague message in that diverging objectives are likely to exist in different groups. Furthermore, weak fiscal autonomy can undermine voters? interest in and demand for an efficient production of public services. In our contribution, we test whether and how voter involvement in the political sphere is related to government performance – in terms of its efficiency – using a broad panel of German municipalities. Our results suggest that voter involvement indeed has a positive impact on (technical) efficiency. Crucially, however, this efficiency-enhancing effect of voter involvement is significantly (positively) affected by local governments? fiscal autonomy.

Voter Involvement, Fiscal Autonomy and Public Sector Efficiency: Evidence from German Municipalities

This paper documents the Portuguese experience in Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs). Since 1993, Portugal has been using PPPs intensively, mainly for highway construction and in the health sector. This has enabled the country to close the infrastructure gap and avoid the budget constraints at the moment of the investment. Doubts about whether PPPs represent value-for-money have emerged. There are several reasons why PPP were unsuccessful: (i) the concentration PPP projects was very high over a limited time span and the public sector was not prepared nor had the ability to manage and control the contracts, (ii) the incentive to resort to PPPs was mainly to avoid budget constraints, but not to use of public resources better by taking advantage of private sector efficiency, (iii) the risk allocation between the private and public sector was flawed because the private sector bore too little risk and payments from the public to the private sector were considerably above the investment cost. The current and future annual payments from the state to the private sector are a substantial burden in the current times of austerity and budget consolidation. As the country had to ask the troika (IMF, ECB, and European Commission) for a financial rescue from, PPP renegotiations are ongoing to reduce public payments.

/pdf/the-portuguese-experience-with-public-private-partnerships-303pklwgg8.pdf

The Portuguese Experience with Public-Private Partnerships

Public–Private Partnerships (PPPs) are used worldwide to reduce the infrastructure gap. Public entities encourage private sector involvement through PPPs, but the degree of such commitment is affected by several factors, related to the specific PPP project and to the institutional and economic environment in the host country. The purpose of this chapter is to perform an empirical analysis of the determinants of the degree of private sector participation in PPPs in developing and emerging countries. This chapter explores fractional response models to explain the degree of private participation in PPPs using data from 2000 to 2014, obtained from the World Bank’s PPI database. The results suggest that the type of project is a key determinant of the degree of private sector involvement. Favourable fiscal conditions and the existence of explicit support from the government (direct or indirect) increase the degree of private involvement. Multilateral support reduces private participation, emphasizing a substitution effect. In the same way, private sector involvement appears as a substitute to overcome failures in countries with poor financial systems. The results are particularly important for public authorities. This chapter identifies key factors that can foster private sector involvement in PPPs. Although the expansion of PPPs is a well-accepted reality, empirical studies that explore factors that affect the degree of private sector involvement are still lacking. This chapter particularly addresses this topic.

The Degree of Private Participation in PPPs: Evidence from Developing and Emerging Economies

Multilateral development banks (MDBs) have important functions in infrastructure projects. Besides their traditional lending role, they provide additional guarantees to private investors about the ...

The Determinants of Multilateral Development Banks’ Participation in Infrastructure Projects

Do anchor infrastructures matter for regional Smart Specialisation Strategy (RIS3)? This paper investigates the potential of anchor infrastructures to leverage RIS3. An exploratory case study appro...

Do anchor infrastructures matter for regional Smart Specialisation Strategy? The case of Alentejo

Using the intermediation approach, where banks are seen as intermediaries between savers and investors, receiving deposits and providing loans, we study the efficiency of Portuguese Banks, using data from 2008 until 2013 from BankScope Database. In the first stage, data envelopment analysis is applied in order to measure efficiency. We extend this analysis to the major Spanish banks and compare the results. Given the 6-year period, the results highlight better efficiency scores for the 14 Spanish banks with an average of 0.815, comparing with the 10 Portuguese banks, which exhibit an average score of 0.783. We cover the recent financial crisis period, to ascertain if there are significant differences between the two neighbouring countries. In the second stage, we use the generalized linear models approach, applying a fractional response model, in order to explain the efficiency scores. In this stage, we use as potential explanatory variables bank specific attributes and country-specific and institutional variables. Our results indicate that the characteristics of each bank appear important to explain efficiency, particularly liquidity, and the level of financial development of a country. Additionally we investigate if there are structural differences between the two countries. The results of the Chow test indicate that we do not reject the hypothesis that the determinants of bank efficiency are the same in both countries.

Portuguese banks’ performance: comparing efficiency with their Spanish counterparts

The austerity policies implemented in Portugal because of the bailout agreement between the Portuguese Government and the Troika include measures to increase performance and reduce costs. An analysis of local government efficiency and an assessment of its determinants is highly relevant for policy purposes, particularly when new efforts to decentralize are being discussed. The aim of this research is to evaluate the efficiency of the 278 mainland municipalities in Portugal using a two-stage procedure, combining data envelopment analysis in the first phase with fractional response models in the second. The analysis is performed for 2010 and 2015, before and after the Troika’s intervention in Portugal. Results show a similar pattern for both years, in the two stages. The results also indicate that there is no structural changes from 2010 to 2015, suggesting that the reforms implemented in municipalities did not succeed.

Maria Basílio

Papers

The Degree of Private Participation in PPPs: Evidence from Developing and Emerging Economies

The Determinants of Multilateral Development Banks’ Participation in Infrastructure Projects

Do anchor infrastructures matter for regional Smart Specialisation Strategy? The case of Alentejo

Portuguese banks’ performance: comparing efficiency with their Spanish counterparts

Local government efficiency: is there anything new after Troika’s intervention in Portugal?